This week in PR (17 May)
Profession and ethics
Purpose, climate and ESG
SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
Consulting, skills and careers
- Louise Thompson: Ageism is alive and kicking in the Communications profession. Let’s discuss… (14 May)
‘It seems as if for many recruiters, “age” is the downside of “experience.” Which is a ridiculous stance if you think about it for even one second. But I have no doubt that this is something many seasoned communications professionals are experiencing at the moment as they search for their next role.’
- Ben Smith: The “In Hindsight” Series: Missive founders Nicola Koronka and Emma Ross on the PRmoment Podcast (13 May)
‘People warned us: ‘Don’t go into business with your best friend’. And ‘Why would you leave a supportive organisation?’ The hardest thing in running a business is starting out.’
Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing
- Maja Pawinska Sims: “Career Breaks In PR Should Be Part Of Inclusivity Policy” (15 May)
‘A roundtable discussion held by the Company of Communicators – part of the City of London’s “livery” group of trade associations – concluded that career breaks by PR practitioners should be normalised by recruiters and hiring managers, rather than stigmatised.’
- Ciara McCrory: #ConsumerCorner: Comms to get us talking about mental health (14 May)
‘Younger people are taking the equivalent of one day off a week as mental health strains affect productivity, costing the economy £158BN, according to research.’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
- Jack Olins: Starmer sets his stall out to win over Essex Man (16 May)
‘His commitments – to deliver economic stability; cut NHS waiting times; launch a new border security command; set up Great British Energy; crack down on antisocial behaviour; and to recruit 6,500 new teachers – are likely to be the first steps a Labour government would take if they won the next election.’ - Leticia Callista: The UK ranks second in soft power, but could it lose its position soon? (no date)
‘In short, anything a country does or possesses that can influence the preferences or perceptions of other nations through appeal and attraction can fall under soft power.’
- MHP Group: Do Keir’s six steps mark the end of the five missions? (16 May)
‘As much as any political campaigner hopes (and expects at their peril) for their message to be digested, the truth is that you have to keep finding ways to get the electorate to understand what it is you stand for and what you will deliver in government.’
- Matthew Williams: Farm to fork summit not the only thing PM has on his plate as rural voters threaten to desert Conservatives (14 May)
‘For over a year now, we’ve seen a swathe of polls, articles and local election results showing that in rural areas voters are turning away from the Conservatives.’ - Andrew Brown: The three challenges John Swinney must overcome in his first weeks in office and why they matter to the rest of the UK (14 May)
‘A stronger-than-expected showing from the nationalists—or a further slip in support—could be the difference between Keir Starmer forming a majority government or bartering for the support of smaller parties in a hung parliament.’
- Alastair McCapra: The dangers of deceptive campaigning: are tougher rules governing election material needed? (10 May)
‘In an age where misinformation is so prevalent and trust in our political institutions is so low, it is imperative that the information shared by political parties is true and accurate.’
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
- Gini Dietrich: Navigating the Future of PR Measurement With AI (16 May)
‘One of the biggest challenges in the PR industry is that we tend to measure outputs versus outcomes—tactics instead of goals. But this tool [CoverageImpact] claims to take one of your tactics—media placements—and correlate those efforts with something the organization cares about, such as sales, stock price, search trends, donations, website visitors, and more.’
- Mandy Pearse: Putting data at the heart of PR (15 May)
‘It’s fundamental to professional PR practice that we do not work on hunches and guesses. We gather the data and combine this with qualitative research. This gives us the numbers to drive targets. It also provides audience insights to refine messages, channels, content and design.’
Behaviour and influence
- Sophie Douez: Influencer marketing in the UK 2024: Hang on to your hats, it’s fast and furious (13 May)
‘The sheer volume of creators and campaigns, and the speed at which the market has come to rely on data to drive results, has bred a high level of confusion and misunderstanding in the market.’
Crisis, risk and reputation
- Stephen Waddington: Navigating global risks: opportunities for corporate communicators to drive positive change (14 May)
‘The report highlights ten key themes that shape the current global risk landscape – including geopolitical tensions, misinformation and polarisation, cyber threats and climate change.’ - Amanda Coleman: Singing off key: what Eurovision tells us about events and risks (13 May)
‘Every event that takes place from a small summer fayre at a school through to a huge global music contest has risks attached. It is important to understand these risks and to use them to consider what plans may need to be in place to manage any situations that may occur.’
Internal communication
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Rachel Miller: Podcast: The global launch of Rachel’s book, featuring Sia Papageorgiou (15 May)
‘I’ve worked really hard to make things clear and to make them instantly accessible. It’s important to me that we get things right in our heads before we share them with other people.’
- Belinda Gannaway: Why people teams can’t get enough of employee personas – part one (13 May)
‘Employee personas are fictional representations of different types of employees within an organisation, based on common characteristics, for example behaviours, goals and needs. Similar to customer personas used in marketing and customer experience (CX), employee personas help organisations better understand their workforce and tailor experiences to meet the diverse needs of their employees.’
Media, digital and technology
https://twitter.com/stuartbruce/status/1790088687511887960
- Katie Macaulay with Linda Zebian: The communicator’s communicator [podcast] (15 May)
‘How are you going to know about things in your community, everything from your community to the global scale if it’s not for journalists? Influencers cannot do this work. Influencers aren’t held to a higher standard. Instead of being so obsessed with your influencer obsession, be so obsessed with a journalist.’ - Matt Redley: OpenAI releases “emotional” AI chatbot update (14 May)
‘The “o” in GPT-4o stands for “omni”, referring to the model’s ability to handle text, speech, and video. The model builds on the capabilities of OpenAI’s GPT-4, the company’s language model that generates text from text and visual information.’
- Dan Slee: FACEBOOK TIP: No really… stop posting links to Facebook (10 May)
‘Stop posting links. No, really. Really stop posting links. The phrase ‘drive traffic to the website’ is as obsolete as ‘answers on a postcard.’
- Neville Hobson: Understanding AI in the Context of History (10 May)
‘The dual perspective of optimism and caution provides a balanced approach that can help maximise AI’s benefits while addressing potential drawbacks. As AI continues to evolve, so too must our approaches to managing its impact on our world.’
Academic, education and training
- Hilary Berg and others: Back to school: Never underestimate the value of professional study in PR (16 May)
‘I owe a lot to the team at the PR Academy, where I started out 16 years ago. With their support, I went on to become one of the CIPR’s first cohort of Chartered practitioners, completing a master’s in PR and communication for Social Change.’
